SimPort

New Online Components

Lanette is climbing the singer career ranks pretty quickly. She's earning enough per day after a few weeks that upgrading objects and splurging on some killer stage props is easily done. Several venues keep her as a regular, and she's never been happier. But she's a true artist! She wants everyone to hear her music! One instance of Starlight Shores alone can't contain all of her talent.

Unfortunately, going on tour means she'll have to be away for a while, and there are no house-sitter services in the universe of The Sims 3. She needs a significant other, or a roommate, or something. She needs at least one adult (or young adult) human Sim to share her home, and then she'll be able to trust her neighbors not to vandalize her pretty home.

Luckily, it just so happens that a Sim is fresh out of medical school and looking for a home. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Johnny Syringe!

His traits include "Absent-Minded" and "Neurotic." Between that and his face, surely you can trust him to fill your prescriptions accurately and on time!

Lanette and Johnny live their lives as they can, even when Johnny starts adopting cats like the species is going extinct. They soon move into a mansion, and Lanette is really feeling the pressure to start expanding her musical talent to other cities. Luckily, thanks to the new online components, she can visit other towns easily (even some that look suspiciously like her own).

The first thing you need to do to visit a friend's city is, well, a friend. By making a profile for the official The Sims 3 website, you'll have access to achievements, shortcuts to your friends' uploaded creations, and more. You can search for friends any number of ways, and you can add them with a few mouse clicks like you can on any social media site.

While online profiles have always been a part of The Sims 3, the achievements are new, as well as a Facebook-like wall that can be accessed from the game itself. Simply go to your menu, then select "Player Profile and Wall." You can make a new post and view all the posts from your friends, as well as check on your achievements. It's this constant interactivity that also allows you to buy new household objects in Buy Mode if you already have any SimPoints on your account (bought with real-world money), though you can't buy SimPoints through the game itself. For that, you'd have to go to the website.

When you're connected to the website, you can also post to your wall through the notification board in the top-right corner of the screen. You'll also get notifications there when your friends have sent a Sim to go on tour.

But how do you go on tour? Lanette needs to know too!

Going On Tour

The only basic requirements for going on tour is that your performer must be at Level 2 of his or her current career track, and you must be actually connected to the Internet through the game. Your performer has to be at home when you give the order, but he or she can be doing anything at that moment, including sleeping.

Lanette just finished her birthday party and is now a full-fledged adult! But there is no rest for a superstar, so after the party breaks up, she hits the sack to ready herself for the tour. At 3 in the morning, despite the fact she is still asleep, we book her tour by clicking "SimPort" in the menu. (Alternatively, we can use her cellphone or computer and choose the "Send or Host a Sim on Tour" option.) Here, you'll get a multi-step screen, and we'll show you each step in detail.

Stamps

There is an overall goal with the SimPort, but like everything in The Sims 3, it's completely optional. You'll be rewarded for pursuing it however, and there are some exclusive bonuses you can unlock for your performers as you work toward it. The goal is to collect stamps, which you get for sending a Sim on a tour, or for hosting a friend's Sim in your own town.

This first screen in the screenshot below is the front page of the SimPort book. The tab in the top-left corner (with the little house on it) will take you to this page. The tab in the top-right corner with the X closes the SimPort book and resumes the game.

The three tabs across the top are the stamp pages for stamps you've collected for sending singers, magicians, and acrobats to others' towns. The five tabs vertically down the left side are the stamp pages for the stamps you've collected for hosting others' Sims at the park, coffee house, live venues, private venues, and big show venues respectively. Clicking any tab lets you see which stamps you have and which you need, and mousing over them or clicking on them lets you see details of the stamp's requirements and rewards.

There are a total of 90 stamps to collect: 45 for sending Sims (three sets of 15 each based on profession), and 45 for hosting Sims (five sets of 9 each based on location). You'll get rewarded for completing any of the eight sets, plus another special reward for collecting all 90. Stamps are shared across your entire profile, so Lanette doesn't need to change jobs or anything to complete the book.